Friday, 24 January 2014

"CURE ME, I'M GAY"

Last week Pope Francis said that he favours the right of gays to marry. The leader of the Catholic Church explains that since gays are part of God's creation, they deserve the same rights and respect as all human beings.

"We have learned much about homosexuality in recent years," he told a reporter aboard the papal jet. "We now know that being gay isn't a choice, but something one is born with. If our Lord decides that someone should come into this world a certain way, who are we to judge his choice?"

On the other hand it was announced that Dr Christian Jessen, the British TV doctor who presents Embarrassing Bodies, is to test a series of controversial therapies for 'curing' homosexuality, as part of a new Channel 4 documentary series, Cure Me, I'm Gay.

A bill banning the use of controversial therapy aimed at 'curing' homosexuality in gay teenagers has been stamped into law by California, making it the first state to outlaw the practice.

I have always believed that you ARE born either heterosexual are gay. A book Born Gay by Glenn Wilson is a Reader at the Institute of Psychiatry in London and Qazi Rahman is a lecturer in psychobiology at the University of East London. Says that Sexual orientation is largely or entirely determined by our genes and hormonal influences in the womb. It is an innate given, fixed at birth. Forget Freudian theory and all the other psycho babble. Biology is destiny. Social or family influences have little or no impact. Blaming parents and childhood upbringing for a child's gayness is mistaken and unfair. The idea that people become gay by seduction or choice is, they say, not supported by scientific research.
A guest on my radio show over the years is gay activist Peter Tatchell

He doesn’t agree in all that is written in the book !!! Now this surprised me. He explains: “I agree with their observation that no one sits down one day and decides to be gay - or straight. Most queers say they felt "different" from a very young age, long before any awareness of sexual desire. While this suggests that sexuality is formed unconsciously by early childhood at the latest, it does not necessarily mean we are born with a pre-fixed sexual orientation." He goes on to say: "The authors are correct biological factors do play a role. Studies of identical twin brothers show that in 52% of cases where one twin is gay the other twin is also gay. This is a much higher concordance than the 2% to 10% distribution of gay people in the general population, as recorded by various sex surveys. It suggests a significant genetic component in the causality of homosexuality, but if genes determine our sexual orientation we would expect that in cases of identical twins where one was gay the other would be gay too - in every case. But, in fact, in only just over half the cases are both twins gay”
Tatchell concludes: “While genes and hormones predispose a person to a particular sexual orientation, they do not determine it. They are significant influences, not the sole cause. Other factors are also at work. Social expectation, cultural values and peer pressure, for instance, push us towards heterosexuality. Without these pro-straight influences, more people might be lesbian, gay or bisexual.”

Now we come to Dr Christian Jessen

The British TV doctor who presents Embarrassing Bodies who is to test a series of controversial therapies for 'curing' homosexuality, as part of a new Channel 4 documentary series, Cure Me, I'm Gay. Jessen, who is openly in a long-term gay relationship, will be assessing the medical credibility of several 'conversion' or 'reparative' therapies by undergoing them himself, and then taking tests to measures his sexual arousal afterwards.
Historically, treatments for 'curing' homosexuality - advocated predominantly by right-wing fundamentalist American religious organisations have included electric shock therapy, inducing nausea while being exposed to homoerotic material, praying, exorcism, trips to brothels to have sex with women, and hypnosis. In Cure Me, I'm Gay, Jessen will talk about homosexual patients who visit doctors asking to be 'cured' from being gay, and people who claim they have genuinely been 'cured',

A bill banning the use of controversial therapy aimed at 'curing' homosexuality in gay teenagers has been stamped into law by California, making it the first state to outlaw the practice.

'Governor Brown of California today reaffirmed what medical and mental health organizations have made clear: Efforts to change minors' sexual orientation are not therapy, they are the relics of prejudice and abuse that have inflicted untold harm on young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Californians.' Conversion therapy is an attempt to change the sexual orientation of a subject from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual. An entire house of medicine has rejected gay conversion therapy. Not only does it not work but it is harmful. Patients who go through this have gone through guilt and shame, and some have committed suicide.

So as I said, I believe our sexuality is determent in the womb and I feel sure there is no ‘cure’ . I look foreword to viewing Channel 4’s Cure Me, I’m Gay.